THE VISIONARIES

An exploration of the philosophical foundations of four of the 20th century’s most controversial and influential writers.

Following his critically acclaimed 2020 book, Time of the Magicians, German author and philosopher Eilenberger holds to a similar template in this group biography of writers Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand, and Simone Weil, interweaving the trajectories of their lives and work from 1933 to 1943. These were harrowing years in particular for Beauvoir, Weil, and German-born Arendt, as the war was gradually unfolding throughout Europe and the German occupation of France was impacting all three. Rand had moved to the U.S. in 1926. With the same acumen as he displayed in Magicians, Eilenberger draws compelling narratives around these women’s lives while ably synthesizing much of their core thinking. Their ideas were germinating during this period, informing their more significant output in years to come. The increasingly controversial writing of Arendt, Rand, and Beauvoir would prove particularly relevant in shaping sociopolitical discourse up through the later years of the 20th century—and even to the present day. While Eilenberger frequently argues the case for Weil’s greatness, her ideas, increasingly inclined toward religious and mystical matters, may feel less tangibly relevant to contemporary American readers. She is somewhat of an outlier within this ambitious group of legacy-minded writers. While never quite providing a cohesive rationale for joining these four disparate writers together, Eilenberger offers solid insight into a center-minded way of thinking applicable to each. “The philosophizing person,” he writes, “seems to be essentially a pariah of deviant insights, the prophet of a life lived rightly....They simply experienced themselves as having been placed fundamentally differently in the world from how other people had been. And deep inside they remained certain of who or what the problem needing treatment was: not themselves, but the Others. Possibly, in fact—all the Others.”

An absorbing, well-grounded study.